'Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It's a month since my last confession and these are my sins.' (Insert here whatever you remember you've done wrong with full knowledge and consent since your last confession.)
The Priest will then give some brief advice on how to avoid these sins in the future. He will then ask you to make an 'Act of Contrition' like: I'm sorry for all my sins and with your grace I'll avoid the occasions of sin and sin no more.
The Priest says: 'I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit'.
Thus ended the ritual confession and began the search for perfection.
Lots of people benefited from the confessional experience. Some didn't.
Outsiders were fascinated with the Catholic practice of confession. They made jokes about the revolving door aspect. So, what's going on in this post modem, sophisticated liberal democratic secular humanist society of ours?
All of a sudden confession is back, with a vengeance. No more privacy or confidentially. No 'seal of confession' preventing leaks to prying investigators.
Now we're expecting 'sinners' to fess up in public, preferably on national or global TV.
Politicians are expected to make full and frank disclosures of their 'sins'. Opinion polls decide who gets absolution and penances are imposed by others with vested interests.
Penitents are sacked, sponsorships lost, preselection denied, even revenge sought.
Not so long ago, offenders were locked in contraptions called 'the stocks' situated in public spaces. Good citizens, without sin we presume, threw garbage at the 'sinful' fellow citizens in the stocks.
I suppose we've reached a stage in our western cultures when we feel the need to replace our lost religious practices with secular equivalents.
We've had for centuries in the West a criminal justice system - judges and magistrates, defence counsel, prosecutors, law enforcement officers - all engaged in promoting law and order, a western prerequisite for a stable, democratic society. It's all about crime and punishment.
What we're seeing now is a very public pursuit, not of criminals, but of 'sinners'.
Laws are written down so we know what to avoid. There are checks and balances built in to the system. 'Sins' are a matter of conscience, a faculty allegedly possessed by every human being.
'How are we to live together' is a matter of conscience to decide. Your conscience may be clear but you may still have broken the law.
'Sin' and crime are not the same.
You've got to have full knowledge and consent to 'sin'. Not so with crime.
And, so to our first interview on Triple J this Sunday, 9.00-10.00 pm.
It's with Manny Waks, Jewish Anti-Defamation executive officer and it's about recently publicized 'anti-semitic' attacks in Caulfield. Baseball bats were used and abusive language. You be the judge.
We'll be talking, also, to the famous Bishop Spong about his most recent book 'Jesus for the Non Religious'.
Sorry for the long preamble about sin and crime. I'm confused, that's all, by the turn investigative journalism has taken. Is it just prurient to the vigilance required for civil liberty?

The Archbishop's Father's Day collection is for retired and sick Priests. Next week's second collection will go to the appeal. Envelopes will be available for tax deductible donations.

A special thankyou to the padshioners who assisted last weekend with the gardening and clean up around the Parish House.
The garden is looking lovely and hopefully over the next few weeks there will be some rain to freshen everything up. The Wedding Groups are thrilled to have such a lovely spot to take photos. Another working bee will be held prior to Christmas.
In the meantime if there are any gardeners who would like to potter in our garden, please feel happy to do so. Or if you would like to sit in the sun and watch the world go by, our gardens are a very pleasant spot for doing just that.

Salesians, former students and staff and their families are warmly invited back to the College to celebrate the 80th year of Salesian presence at Rupertswood. (Salesian College Rupertswood Macedon Street, Sunbury Saturday 13 October 10.00-4.30pm) Contact the College on 9740 0000 or email pfa@scr.vic.edu.au

Just a few days ago I was preparing with a family for the funeral of their mother, Alma.
She died at 93. She married Jack in the South Melbourne Church in 1938. There were 10 children. All were at the funeral. Jack died 20 years ago.
Two of the children were twins. They're 60 now. One's a Down Syndrome person. This was the first and last separation from his mother. You'd expect him to crack up. He didn't.
He understood. He went into care. One of the caregivers called the dozen or so residents together. They're all Down Syndrome. 'Paul's mother died two days ago', she told the others.
Palpably moved the residents moaned and one said 'that's very sad'.
Another whipped out his mobile phone and said 'That's all right. My mother's already there. I'll ring her and ask her to look after Paul's mum so she settles in easier.' Paul thanked the others and him especially.
Argue with that theology, if you want. I won't. I can't.
It's not a posh or rational explanation of Alma's present location or situation. It's not what you'd expect or, probably, ever get from a preacher. You might even be offended if he or she tried it.
Suits me, though, as a no frills statement of fact from one who 'knows' with the heart.
Down Syndrome gifted people are revered by all who have the privilege of their company, as the better angels of our nature. They 'know' we're all in the same boat or relational matrix, whether we're labeled by others as alive or dead.
Paul and his comrades exude 'joy'. That trumps 'fun' any and every time.
He played the mouth organ into a microphone at Alma's funeral. No other sound was heard. I felt I'd died and gone to heaven - in my own church, for God's sake! Paul put us all in our special place of grief and celebration.
Thanks Paul. Well done Alma. I just might try the mobile phone. My mother's already there.
Dunno if you're in the mood for deep and meaningful but I will press on with an interview on Triple J this Sunday 9-11 pm, with Moya Simons who's been writing for children for over 15 years.
Her latest is 'Hello God' and Moya 'thinks of the book as a child's introduction to philosophy rather than a book about religions, learning to question the things that happen in life and finding answers within yourself'.
John Safran and I will also interview Michael Hodgman about Republic v Monarchy and Tanya Levin, author of 'People in Glass Houses', a critique of the Hillsong church' where she grew up. She's no longer welcome there.
Rarely, an interviewee doesn't front. Like last week - the author of the book about the Kalashnikov rifle and its global influence. Sorry about that.
A Current Affair dropped in for a priestly comment on a local 'house of disrepute'. Hope it's canned!

The Refugee Action Collective - Victoria very much hopes that you can join them at the Sandridge Bridge on the north side of the Yarra, near Flinders Street Station before 12.45 pm on Sunday August 26 in support of justice and humanity in Australia's Refugee Policy.

Thanks to the willing workers who tidied our grounds last week

Last weekend we welcomed Sr Margie Bourke, a Loreto Sister who has spent some time as a missionary in Peru. Thanks to those who contributed to the appeal

6.45 pm. Wednesday, August 8, all the lights go out at my place in South Melbourne. 6.50 pm, all the lights are back on. Lucky me.
The only torch at hand had flat batteries. The only cigarette lighter had no fuel. It's a two-storey house - dark as the tomb. What would I have done? I wasn't prepared. Someone was. The electricity grid was prepared. Thanks to lots of fellow citizens who work all hours that the rest of us in a big city may live in comfort.
No longer us and them, just WE. Yet another example of how we depend on each other to do our duty. OK, a computer put the lights back on but someone programmed that computer. Thank you, that someone.
Hospitals function because some people look after others, put others before themselves.
Traffic flows according to the same principle, whether on earth, sea or in the sky.
When a disaster strikes, natural or manmade, police and other essential service providers swing into action. Duty calls, some go even beyond the call of duty.
Churches do their duty when they behave as centres of hope in their neighbourhoods.
Bloggers do the~ duty when they act as 'social' reporters. The mainstream media is jealous of this emerging information sharing phenomenon.
Pictures are taken by phone cameras and downloaded (or is it uploaded) onto MySpace or YouTube. Is this done from a sense of duty or a desire to become known?
On Triple J this Sunday, 9-11 pm, Safran and I (mainly Safran) interview a bloke who wrote a book "AK47: The story of the people's gun. Mikhail Kalashnikov reckoned he had a duty to design a rifle to protect his Soviet homeland from its enemies. He now wishes he'd designed a motor mower instead.
We also interview Michael Gawenda, author of American Notebook. Some will remember him as editor-in-chief of the Age and a former editor of Time.
Then comes Greg Barnes, former head of the Republican Movement and author of An Australian Republic. (Next week we'll speak to a monarchist).
Finally, Professor Larry Sitsky, Higher Doctorate of Fine Arts (ANU), Fellow Australian Academy of the Humanities and composer of the Golem Opera.
The Golem is a 'creature' fashioned in Prague from river mud, brought to life by Jewish people oppressed by local Christians in the 1500's. The Golem was entrusted with the duty of protecting the Jewish people from the oppressors.
Interestingly, Kalashnikov referred to his AK47 as a Golem".
My interest in all the people we interview is selfish. I'm looking for handy hints about what I and my fellow social activists (including my own Catholic parishioners) can do to make the world a better place for all. I submit that we have a duty to do just that. Help from any quarter, Kalashnikov, Gawenda, Sitsky is welcome.
But, self-help is always at hand.
You I I are the Golem.

Don't forget the Garden working bee scheduled for next Sunday, 19 August, straight after the l0 am Mass. All hands warmly welcome to stay and give a hand.

Marriage Encounter is a worldwide marriage enrichment programme that has been in Australia for over 30 years. Enhance your marriage by attending a Marriage Encounter Weekend. The weekend is a time for you and your spouse to be alone together, to rediscover each other and focus on your relationship in a very positive way. Your marriage deserves that kind of attention. The next two weekends will be held at Lysterfield on 19-21 October and Marysville on 11April, 2008. For further information and bookings contact Peter and Erika Smith 9899 0824 or email erika@hrpartner.com.au. Checkout the website for more information on www.wwme.org.au.

Don't forget the garden working bee scheduled for 19 August straight after the l0 am Mass. All hands warmly welcome to stay and give a hand.

When I was a kid they used to tell us we should behave because God was always watching us.
Now that doesn't go over so well, secular enlightenment has come up with its own all seeing eye, the spy camera.
One of my colleagues got caught on one such and was publicly humiliated by having himself put in the 'stocks' of YouTube.
He's the clerical manager of a rather large and valuable, even invaluable (religiously speaking) piece of real estate known as St. Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne (Australia for OS bloggers).
He and a band of young skate boarders got into a bit of a barney, mainly verbal. I've got nothing to say except I did deliver a hand written note to my friend's residence.
It said: 'If they were Japanese tourists you would have spoken Japanese. They were skateboarders so you used the skateboard dialect. They knew exactly what you meant which is the aim of all verbal communication.'
What I wrote doesn't matter to him or me. What I meant to convey was relational not rational. Catholic Clergy are alone in this world. I mean, for better or worse, we have, apart from a few exceptions, no wives or children. As we grow older we have fewer friends.
So, I like to take the opportunity, whenever a colleague features in the media, to express solidarity whether the news grab is positive or negative.
It's part of my growing conviction that humanity is evolving, for good or ill, into an unbelievably interconnected species.
Bloggers are a big part of this scenario. Is the blogospere a morally neutral space? Is it our destiny to have access to all human knowledge, past and present, even future?
Surely, along with this spectacular experiential growth in human knowledge, there needs to be an equivalent development of human wisdom in the form of common sense.
We'll need a common sense of how were to live together if were going, not only to survive, but flourish into a better evolutionary form of humanity. That'II take lots of hard work by each of us. The more 'wired' we become, the more obligation we have to offset the toxic effects of that process with positive, individual disciplines required for sharing the global village.
If it's good enough for carbon emissions, it's good enough for the spiritual well-being of our personal, local, regional and global neighbourhood.
If you want to reflect on just how hard it was to get us 'wired' in the first place, listen to an interview on 3JJJ this Sunday night, 9-11 pm. John Safran will be talking with Simon Hackett, CEO of the national broadband company Internode. I'll let Safran do most of the talking because it's a generationally specific topic. I'll be riding 'shotgun', nevertheless.
On the same programme, we talk with Mary Zoumazi, writer and philosopher, who reviews films, this time Shut up and Sing about the Dixie Chicks. In 2003, the lead singer made a now infamous-Bush comment during a show in Maines, USA.
The Dixie Chicks were criticized by the US media and public for voicing their opinions. What does this say, if anything, about freedom expression in USA?
There's two other interviews, one critical of Michael Moore, famous for Fahrenheit 9/11 and other contentious and politically incorrect documentary films.
Debbie Melnyk, writer, director and producer of Manufacturing Dissent, is the interviewee. Her film is now showing as part of the Melbourne Film Festival.
It's a mixed bag, I guess, but educational for an old bloke like me. It's also an example of what I spoke about earlier - the hard work needed from each and everyone of us to offset the toxic side effects of sharing such an electronically cramped space we call mother earth.
By the way, religious believers and practitioners have yet another chance to show themselves at home, sometimes uneasily, in this brave new 'flat' world.

I'm looking for information on the land at 150 Victoria Ave., Albert Park 3206 before 1967 when the High Rise was built and I'd be interested to see any photos anyone has, as I am doing a study on the area as a project. You can ring me Madeleine De Laney on 9682 8143 or email me at deIanymadeline@yahoo.com.au

Applications are invited from suitably qualified people for the full-time position (one year contract) of receptionist at the office for Melbourne's Participation in World Youth Day 2008. Further details can be found on the Archdiocesan website at.melbourne.catholic.org.qu/policies/hr-jobadverts.htm